NS: Stenek closing Amherst facility in April

'The Amherst operation is relocating to Dartmouth TNG DC, where we have available warehouse capacity in a building we built four years ago,” says Peter Olson, president of TNG Canada, Stenek's parent company.

[AMHERST, NS] - The Amherst economy is set to take another hit after the president of TNG Canada confirmed Stenek will be closing its operation there in April.

“The Amherst operation is relocating to Dartmouth TNG DC, where we have available warehouse capacity in a building we built four years ago,” Peter Olson told Cumberlandnewsnow.com on Monday. “This move helps us balance out our real estate needs, fixed costs and improved logistics.

“In addition, we can better service our customers where the majority of their business is in the greater Halifax-Dartmouth region.”

Olson said the move to Jennett Avenue in Burnside Business Park affects 13 jobs in the Amherst area, although he said some of the affected employees are expected to move with their jobs.

The Amherst facility, built at a cost of just over $2 million in 2005, is for sale.

Stenek started small opening in Springhill in the mid-1990s. Former owner Shannon Sears moved the company to Amherst in 1999 and set up shop in the former Canadian Tire space on Prince Arthur Street.

After the new facility was built in the industrial park, the company continued to operate an office supplies store in downtown Amherst until 2011.

Sears sold the company to TNG, a division of the Jim Pattison Group, in 2010.

Office Xperts closed downtown in September 2011.

Amherst Mayor Robert Small said he is disappointed in the decision, adding there wasn’t anything the town could do to prevent it.

“It’s tough to lose any jobs,” Small said after town council’s February committee-of-the-whole meeting on Monday. “It just seems that we get some good retail news in that Giant Tiger is showing faith in the community and then we get the setback that these jobs are leaving Amherst.

“I don’t blame companies for making the decision to move the business to closer to where the lion’s share of their customers are. It’s just unfortunate that we’re the ones on the losing end of it,” Small said.

The mayor said he, Community and Economic Development director Roger MacIsaac and CAO Greg Herrett are going to sit down and talk about last week’s Ivany report and evaluate what they can do to enhance development in the town.

“We need to find out what things we can over and above what we’re already doing to increase economic development in Amherst,” the mayor said.